Sign up for our weekly security newsletter

Airlines Bear Brunt of E-mail Ticketing Scams

The US airline industry is witnessing its good name being exploited by malware authors who are trying to deceive potential victims. Security analysts at the leading security firm Symantec are witnessing a new series of airline-linked malware distribution scams surfacing worldwide.

Security experts at Symantec state that the recent assaults promote themselves as e-mail receipts for fake e-tickets bought through credit card which people have not actually requested. The firm alleged that the intention is to deceive people into opening the onboard attachment to check whether their credit card information has actually been misused or not. Later, attackers hack their computers through malicious software.

The fraud includes an e-mail that seems to have originated from a reputed airline firm thanking the receiver for buying tickets through its website. The e-ticket messages even take the trouble of furnishing log-in and password ID combination for concerned people to utilize while confirming their data on the advertized airlines' sites.

The airline companies whose good reputation was sullied in the assaults are: JetBlue, Midwest, Northwest, Sun Country and United.

A spokesperson from Northwest Airlines, which was one of the alleged airlines involved in the fraud, stated that they have been receiving huge number of calls about the scam. The message itself appears to be small threat, but the trouble starts as soon as a reply is sent to the scammer.

Security analysts advised users to be wary of websites despite their claim of being fully secure. Moreover, they should think twice before giving their credit card details when asked by unknown emails.

Security experts further started they tracked a series of smartly-disguised e-mails that arrived in the message-boxes of people claiming to provide discounted airfare offers. But instead of giving genuine discounts, these emails just deliver Trojan horse on user's system.

Furthermore, these scams can be found globally, like hundreds of South Africans, who have been deceived in a huge air-travel scam offering low-priced airfares,(both domestic and international), lost a lot of money when flight tickets they had purchased through an email airlines company failed to turn up.